Mayor Dave Bing, City Council to share Detroit cable channels, will they produce must-see TV?

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council agreed to settle their dispute over the city’s two government-access cable channels.

March 3, Detroit Free Press: The agreement, hashed out with Wayne County Circuit Judge John Gillis Jr., gives the mayor and council each control over one channel.

Under the agreement, Bing's office will manage Channel 10 programming, while the council will use Channel 22.

In other words, Billy can play with the blue ball and Johnny can play with the green ball.

The dispute began when the Bing Administration attempted replace Council meeting broadcasts with other programming about city government. Council responded by taking control of Detroit’s Cable Commission, which is responsible for the government-access channels day-to-day operations.

With this settlement, Detroiters will hopefully benefit from improved government-access programming motivated by a Bing-Council ratings war.

Unfortunately, this current Council will likely continue behaving in a professional and courteous manner during their meetings. You can't even get a decent off-key hymn out of this current group.

Mayor Bing probably won’t host a program as compelling as incarcerated felon Kwame Kilpatrick’s short-lived cable-access talk show when he was in power. Despite his many good qualities, Bing doesn't have the brazen lack of self-awareness to truly shine on the small screen as Kilpatrick did back in 2008.

At this point, the best bet for a government-access hit is “the crazee,” who so often take advantage of public meeting comment sessions.

After all, Ray Lyman’s antics put Scranton on the map. The YouTube video of that insane “helicopter” guy has probably done wonders for Charlotte’s tourism industry. Who wouldn’t flock to the Queen City to see just exactly where the “rogue helicopter pilot” flew between the magnolia tree and the property line? And let’s not forget how one woman rallied Santa Cruz to make things, sell them in their stores, and “be rich in cotton.” All without the slavery so prominent on the east coast.

We know Detroit has the loudest, most disconnected-from-reality crazee in America. Anyone who’s ever spent time listening to local fringe figures fret about imaginary conspiracies knows that.

It’s time to share this precious jewel with the rest of the world. If government-access TV is properly programmed, Detroit could be the Silicon Valley of public participation unintentional comedy. Just think of the potential economic impact and jobs creation possibilities.